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Every minute of the day people are interacting with the work of engineers. From the computers we use, to transportation and infrastructure around us, engineers have solved problems we face in everyday life.
But most people don’t know what engineers do, and it’s this image problem that is stopping young people, especially women, from joining the profession.
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Engineers Australia chief engineer Jane MacMaster said it was frustrating that women still only make up 12 per cent of working engineers.
“I studied mechanical engineering 30 years ago and the dial has not shifted in any measurable amount in mechanical engineering in particular, and that’s three decades. So I am frustrated,” Ms MacMaster said.
“The numbers aren’t as bad in other disciplines of engineering such as biomedical and chemical engineering, but for many disciplines of engineering the participation of women is still very low.”
The proportion of women in the field is increasing by half a per cent per year, but that is too slow as engineering occupations are among the fastest growing in Australia.
An Engineering for Australia Taskforce was pulled together in 2019 and this week it released a report mapping the actions that schools, industry and government need to take to improve the uptake of engineering studies and retain skilled employees.
One finding was that amid the push to improve STEM education – that is science, technology, engineering and maths – the engineering component gets lost.
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Ms MacMaster, who is the chair of the taskforce, said teachers and engineers themselves were not good at articulating what the profession does.
“I can’t tell you the number of speeches I’ve heard where the word science or the acronym STEM is used at the expense of calling out what’s different and unique and value-adding about the engineering profession because we are actually quite distinct from science.”
Many well-meaning programs to encourage women and girls into engineering are not backed by evidence or do not have ongoing funding and evaluation schemes built into them.
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The Australian government’s women in STEM ambassador and University of NSW professor Lisa Harvey-Smith said engineering was struggling to shrug off its blokey image of hard hats and high vis.
“When it when a child is showing aptitude at school and they’re getting good grades, often they’re told from society, from parents, teachers, and so on, ‘you should be a doctor or a lawyer.’ And in other countries engineer is on that list,” Professor Harvey-Smith said.
She said teachers needed professional development to be able to explicitly teach it to children so it doesn’t get lost amid the science content.
Her office is also building a portal to help people designing programs to promote STEM to effectively evaluate what works.
“People don’t understand the depth and breadth of what engineering is … it’s just incredibly diverse,” she said.
“I think we just need to sell engineering better and that’s what this report is, is really saying.”
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Sarah covers all stages of education in the capital, from early childhood to higher education. Previously she was a general news reporter at The Advocate in North West Tasmania. She was named Best New Journalist at the 2019 Tasmanian Media Awards for a series on paramedic shortages. Email: sarah.lansdown@canberratimes.com.au
Sarah covers all stages of education in the capital, from early childhood to higher education. Previously she was a general news reporter at The Advocate in North West Tasmania. She was named Best New Journalist at the 2019 Tasmanian Media Awards for a series on paramedic shortages. Email: sarah.lansdown@canberratimes.com.au
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